An all-Germany final saw Friday night’s Team Sprint gold medallists Robert Foerstemann and Stefan Boetticher go head to head for gold in the Men’s Sprint final. It was Boetticher who got the better of his countryman, winning the first match and taking the second with a stunning sprint in the final 200m that saw him take gold in emphatic style and bring the UCI Track Cycling World Cup to a fitting end.

The bronze medal match was contested by Spain’s Juan Gascon Peralta and Denis Dmitriev of the Rusvelo team who needed only two matches to beat his rival and claim the bronze.

Great Britain’s representation came in the form of Olympic Team Sprint gold medallist Philip Hindes who finished 12th in the competition overall.

Olympic champion Jason Kenny did not feature in the Sprint event after a heavy fall in the Keirin final on Saturday night where his World Cup was cut short with a broken collarbone.

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Women’s Keirin

GOLD – Germany (VOGEL)

SILVER – Petroholding Leningrad(GNIDENKO)

BRONZE – Hong Kong(LEE)

Germany’s in form Kristina Vogel picked up her second gold medal of the week, adding Keirin gold to the Sprint she won on Saturday night. Silver went to Ekaterina Gnidenko, racing for the Petroholding Leningrad team, and bronze went to Hong Kong’s Wai Sze Lee.

Great Britain’s Becky James qualified for the final and was unlucky not to finish on the podium after leading out after the exit of the derny.

Great Britain’s Jess Varnish missed out on the final after finishing 6th in her second round heat. After racing in the Team Sprint, Sprint and 500m TT fatigue was evident in Varnish and she finished 9th overall.

Women’s Omnium

GOLD – Great Britain (TROTT)

SILVER – Australia (ANKUDINOFF)

BRONZE – Russia (BALABOLINA)

Olympic and World Omnium champion Laura Trott won the Women’s Omnium title in dramatic style, beating rival Ashlee Ankudinoff from Australia into silver in the final heat of the sixth event, the 500m Time Trial. Going into the final event Ankudinoff was two points ahead of Trott with Trott needing to beat her rival by two places to secure gold. An aggressive ride in which Trott gave everything she had saw her deliver once again, finishing with the second fastest time behind Russian Tamara Balabolina which was enough to secure gold and bring the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome crowd to their feet. Victory in the 500m Time Trial meant Balabolina did enough to take home bronze for Russia.

When the gold medal race eventually got underway – after a false start by Japan’s rider Takashi Sakamoto, a faulty gun and a few issues with the derny – it was Australia’s Peter Lewis at the front and Kenny trailing in third. Once the derny left the track it was Kenny and German rider Stefan Boetticher who went head-to-head on the final lap. However, there was a dramatic twist as Kenny turned into Boetticher and crashed out taking France’s rider Quentin Lafargue with him. In the end Boetticher held his nerve and took the gold.

Earlier on there was more bad luck for British riders as Welshman Lewis Oliva crashed with Australia’s Andrew Taylor in the second round.

World Cup standings after 2 round:

BOETTICHER (12 points)

PUERTA (12 points)

LAFARGUE (12 points)

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Women’s Sprint

GOLD – Germany (VOGEL)

SILVER – Great Britain (VARNISH)

BRONZE – Great Britain (JAMES)

The semi-final saw last night’s Team Sprint gold medallist Great Britain teammates Rebecca James and Jessica Varnish go head-to-head to earn a place in the gold medal race. After the first two legs of the semi-final the riders it was 1-1, with it all coming down to the decider. In a strong display by Varnish, she earned her place in the gold medal race.

Vogel took the shine out of Varnish in the opening race of the gold medal Women’s Sprint final with a solid performance. The second race followed the same vein as Varnish attempted to go out early with the sprint only for Vogel to come back and take the win and secure gold.

James took the first of three races with a solid performance but Lee came back in the second to force a deciding duel.

World Cup standings after 2 round:

LEE (19 points)

VARNISH (18 points)

JAMES (18 points)

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Men’s Individual Pursuit

GOLD – Denmark (HANSEN) – 4:20.875

SILVER – Ireland (IRVINE) – 4:22.745

BRONZE – Spain (MUNTANER JUANEDA) – 4:28.429

Martyn Irvine and Lasse Norman Hansen went head-to-head for the gold. Hansen made the better start and grew a good lead by the first time check. The gap was not clawed back and the Dane took the win with ease – adding another gold medal to the Team Pursuit medal he achieved yesterday.

The bronze medal race started with Spanish rider David Muntaner Juaneda taking an early advantage and building a 2 second lead at the midway point. The gap was too much for the New Zealand rider Dylan Kennett to pull back and Muntaner Juaneda took the bronze.

World Cup standings after 2 round:

HANSEN (12 points)

IRVINE (10 points)

MUNTANER JUANEDA (8 points)

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Men’s Omnium

GOLD – Germany (LISS)

SILVER – Australia (O’SHEA)

BRONZE – Spain (ELORRIAGA ZUBIAUR)

Omnium IV – 4km Individual Pursuit

Rank 1 Great Britain (DIBBEN) – 4:26.982

Rank 2 Belgium (DE KETELE) – 4:28.908

Rank 3 Australia (O’SHEA) – 4:29.699

Omnium V – Scratch Race 15km

Rank 1 Denmark (KRIGBAUM)

Rank 2 Kazakstan (LYALKO)

Rank 3 Japan (HASHIMOTO)

Omnium VI – 1km Time Trail

Rank 1 Germany (LISS) – 1:02.768

Rank 2 Australia (O’SHEA) – 1:03.475

Rank 3 Great Britain (DIBBEN) – 1:03.955

Great Britain’s Jonathan Dibben came out on top in the individual pursuit, placing him in sixth in the overall Omnium standings. The race saw Belgium’s Kenny De Ketele and Australia’s Glenn O’Shea finish second and third respectively.

The scratch race started with the home crowd hoping for a win by fancied Jonathan Dibben. He faced stiff competition in world champion Australia rider Glenn O’Shea who was involved in a number of break-away groups in the early stages. In the end it was Mathias Wichmann Krigbaum, Alexey Lyalko and Eiya Hashimoto who succeeded in lapping the main group and went on to claim the top 3 positions.

Heading into the last event of the Omnium, the table was tight at the top with only 2 points separating the top three. Dibben put in a solid time and ended up third behind rank 1 Lucas Liss and rank 2 O’Shea.

After some fantastic racing over the six events, Germany’s Lucas Liss was too strong for the competition, taking the gold medal with Australia’s World Champion O’Shea taking silver and Spain’s Unai Elorriaga Zubiaur with the last place on the podium in bronze.

In the first of the women’s Omnium Flying Lap the current world champion came an unexpected fourth with the Australian, Ashlee Ankudinoff, taking the win with a solid performance.

Trott entered the Points Race as World and Olympic champion but faced tough competition from a strong field. In the end a couple 20 point lapping from the likes of Tatsiana Sharakova and Ausrine Trebaite were too much for Trott and she finished ninth.

The elimination race saw a rider go down hard and have to be taken off on a stretcher. After the restart Trott rode a great race with an enthralling sprint over the last lap to take the win.

A few weeks ago my boyfriend Jetse and I did a short visit to Mallorca, he had to do an intense block of training and the guys from Performance United have their training base there so I was excited to catch up with my sister Sofia!
It was impossible not to fall in love with the place, with those amazing views and all the mountains! We arrived at Sofia’s apartment in Alaró, such a nice little town.
Very close to her apartment is the Team House, the boys of the team live there and they also have a weight lifting room, with all the necessary equipment for track riders along with the fantastic watt bikes, and you can’t miss the flags of Ireland, USA, Turkey, Mexico and Spain decorating the room.

Sofia Arreola

We had time to catch up a little bit there with coach Andy Sparks while he was showing us the place and telling us all the advantages that came with training in Mallorca, he even invited Jetse for a ride with the guys.

To me it was clear why my sister doesn’t want to come back to train in Mexico after only a few hours of being there, the Island is really special for bike rides!!! But I was so excited and looking so much forward to go to the track and see the guys in action!

Andy Sparks

But that didn’t happen until the last day, meanwhile we had time to do some training, enjoy the sun and the beach and we even went for dinner with Jennie Reed and her hubby Brandon Madden, I have to admit I’m such a big fan of Jennie since long time ago when she was a sprinter but this is the first time I’d actually met her and had time to get to know her.

When I asked her, why did she make the change from sprinting to endurance she said she was looking for a new challenge and I think instead Jennie’s creating a challenge to other teams as she rocks in the team pursuit even as much as she did as a sprinter!

Anyways back to the track… The Palma Arena is such a cool place, the track is beautiful and you can feel the great atmosphere at their training sessions, you can hear everyone cheering for each other while they’re doing there efforts and giving tips to each other to improve… its just priceless! But I have to say the biggest supporters at the track are Brandon Madden and Kirk Bausch (husbands of Jennie Reed and Dotsie Bausch) you can hear they screaming “GO, GO, GO!!!” during the whole training.

While Sarah Hammer and Jennie Reed have basically made Mallorca their second home the rest of the Team Pursuit girls (Lauren Tamayo and Dotsie Bausch) come in special periods during the year, this time they were all together as they’re getting ready for London and yes… they are looking STRONG!

Other riders in the team also preparing for London are Martyn Irvine (Ireland) and David Muntaner (Spain), while Recep Unalan (Turkey) and Sofia Arreola (Mexico) are making next year’s World Cup season their major focus.

Coach Andy is looking very optimistic about the Games and I’m sure the boys and girls will get amazing results there, so excited to see them racing and I even got special t-shirts to support them along the way!

Santa is coming with many gifts for all of those who have been good this year and I’m sure everyone is getting ready to have a nice dinner and spend time with their families this weekend. But how is Christmas in the life of a bike rider??

For road riders this is the off-season, they don’t have any races at this time of the year, its more about recovering and getting in shape for the next season. But for track riders and cyclocross riders this is where they need to be 100% and really focused on riding their bikes and pushing themselves further in races. Don’t ask me much about MTB, BMX and other cycling disciplines because to be honest I really don’t know much about those disciplines!

Lets start with road riders; I think the hardest thing for them is to stay in shape, at Christmas there’s a lot of good food and people tend to gain weight in the winter, that’s something that a bike rider and especially a road rider can’t allow themselves to do as weight does matter!

Drem Airfiled Snow Ride By Jason Liddell

There are usually training camps with their team to build up relationships with new and old teammates and to get a nice block of training for the next season under their belt, they need to stay focused to achieve their goals for the upcoming season and manage their time wisely to also be able to spend quality time with the family.

It’s harder when you live in one of those really cold countries in Europe where there is a lot of snow and rain during the winter and you need to go to other places to train, my boyfriend, Jetse Bol had to go to Fuerteaventura for training last year and couldn’t spend “Sinterklaas” (it’s what Dutchies celebrate over Christmas) with his family in Holland.

Things are a bit more complicated for the ‘cross and track riders, they are in the middle of the season right now and they do have to train and compete at the highest level in the World. The cross riders have a World Cup on December 26th and plenty of other races after that which means they probably won’t be out celebrating on New Year’s Eve!

The track riders don’t have big races close to Christmas but for example, the case of my sister Sofia; she is based in Mallorca during the winter because it’s better for training than Mexico and because it’s easier to travel to all the races but she was lucky that there was a World Cup in Colombia this month so she could come over to Mexico to spend Christmas at home but she is flying to Mallorca on the 26th in order to get ready for her next event in Beijing.

Sometimes you need to make some sacrifices and sometimes you are lucky enough to be able to do it all but in the end all that matters is achieving the goals set for the season, the Olympic year is coming!!!

We are in the sprinting line on our way to the Olympic Games of London. Sofia has to participate in the four World Cups, Pan American Championship and the World Championship in order to make enough points to qualify.

The qualification system its complicated, it’s a ranking for Continents. The American continent has 5 places for the women’s omnium and we have Sarah Hammer (USA), Tara Whitten (Canada) and Marlies Mejias (Cuba) that have secured their places for the Olympics in the last season. The big dispute is between Angy Gonzalez (Venezuela), the Colombian Maria Luisa Calle and Sofia Arreola (Mexico).

Sofi hopes to finish in the top 10 of the World Cups and World Championship in order to finish within the first five in the Pan American Ranking.

Training base in MallorcaMallorca is a perfect place for training; it has high mountains as well as flat and safe roads to do nice and long rides to improve the endurance. Mallorca has 2 different tracks where you can train and improve different things.

Sofia is currently training under the direction of Andy Sparks in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Supported by the Mexican Cycling Federation and the National Sports Commission.

The training objectives are to improve power and endurance for individual events of the omnium. Training with Sarah Hammer and riders from Turkey and Ireland has made significant changes in Sofia as she has improved both her power and her endurance on the track. In the last Pan American Games in Guadalajara 2011, Sofi showed the progress when she won the silver medal.

First World: Astana
In Astana, as in all World Cups, you need to do a points race of 40 laps in order to qualify to the finals in the omnium, they have 2 heats and the best 12 of each heat get to ride the finals. Sofia was 4th in her qualifying heat, showing again her progress in her endurance.
The omnium started with 24 riders, all the best girls of the world were there only two big names were missing: Tara Whitten and Sarah Hammer they both decided to start their season in the 2nd World Cup in Cali. Sofia was looking strong but performed poorly in the elimination race and finished 13th overall at the end.

2nd World Cup: Cali, Colombia
For this World Cup Andy and Sofi planned to do the scratch race in addition to the omnium. The scratch race is an official event in the World Championships but not in the Olympics, this is one of Sofia’s favorites events and she can perform really good in it as well.

You also need to do a qualification ride before riding the finals, 2 heats where only the first 10 of each heat can go to the finals. Sofia was second in her heat and was ready to give everything in the next race.
The final had 20 riders, the best riders in the world for sure. She was trying to control the race from start to finish and maybe worked too much, 4 riders went into the break away and she managed to win the bunch sprint to finish 5th place, this complies in part with the goal set by Andy for this World Cup.

The next day begins with the qualifying for the omnium. Sofia had to ride the heat with the best two riders of the specialty (World Champ Tara Whitten and multiple World Cup Champ Sarah Hammer) She managed to qualify and had a very regular start in the first event (250m flying lap). In the second event (points race) she finished in 5th place, Sofi improved her chances in the general classification and she was getting closer to the top 10 she wanted.

In the next event (elimination race), a race that is usually very complicated as every rider starts the race full gas because every 2 laps the last rider gets eliminated. The excitement of the riders as well as their desire to win caused several crashes, Sofi was involved in one of them. She hit the wall of the track injuring her back, right arm and finger and so had to end her participation in this World Cup.

Sofi is currently in 3rd place in the world ranking of the scratch race and she is looking forward to top that at the World Championships in Australia but her main focus is to make more points for the Olympics, she still wants to secure top 10 in the next two World Cups in Beijing and the Olympic test of London.

There are now four more races where she can collect Olympic points: the next two World Cups, the PanAm Champs and the World Champs it will be a hard and close fight between the riders because everyone is working harder than ever before to get there but we are sure that Sofia can achieve her goal and make her Olympic dream a reality in London.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been to Spain, trained hard and got way too nervous whilst watching some World Cup track racing in Colombia.
After choosing not to ride the track this winter, it’s been clear a long cold few months awaited me at home. So on being offered a week out in Majorca training I jumped at the chance! I was heading out to join my team mate Martyn Irvine – Ireland’s number 1 track rider and Olympic hopeful – who I spent the majority of 6 months last year training, travelling and competing with all over the world. I really enjoy the travelling involved with the sport and the chance to be in a foreign country is always something I look forward to. I wouldn’t have thought I’d look forward to it as much after visiting 3 continents last season, but every time I hear that I’m being flown off somewhere different I look forward to it a lot! After speaking with Martyn – who has been training with a small group of riders; Recep, Mutlu, Sofia and Sarah – I desperately missed the track scene. He had already been to Holland, Kazakhstan and Colorado Springs in the US! I don’t think it’s quite as exciting for him, as he has done it all before – and the fact he is not receiving the financial support he really needs! – but I still think it’s pretty cool. The week was spent doing the road training with the track guys and girls plus then doing a bit of extra training by myself. I would usually spend my evenings watching the guys fly round the track. I thoroughly enjoyed the week and would like to thank Andy Sparks for allowing me to come out.

Once home, the cold weather wasn’t particularly nice but was a lot warmer than I was used to for late November. I had now officially started my winter training and the new structure to my day was a great motivator. I was really enjoying going out for 4-5 hours on my own, listening to my iPod and just generally feel like I was working towards next season. With all the excitement of joining Rapha Condor Sharp and the prospect of a really good racing calendar, training was easy to do. It’s by far the most training I’ve done on the road, so looking forward to the benefits next season.
Another thought that has been in my head is that with the new racing calendar and the opportunity to race more; premier calendar, UCI 2.2 and 1.2 races is if the right results are achieved throughout the year then it is definitely possible for Rapha Condor Sharp to be the final bridge across to a top Protour team. So that will be my aim over the next 2-3 years riding with RCS. The opportunity to race these races, be able to race and learn from team mates who are some of the best riders in the UK and have the best support of any team I’ve ever been a part of, it really is down to me to work hard and improve so I and the rest of the team can achieve these results we need.

I think I’ve written enough to bore most people who are likely to read this so I’ll finish up with a quick section about the UCI Track World Cup in Cali, Colombia. It was my favourite World Cup and probably my favourite country I was lucky enough to visit last year. Luckily the guys I was supporting throughout the 4 day event did a lot better than I did when I competed in my first World Cup last year – I was 13th in the scratch race. On the first day Sarah Hammer picked up 3rd in the Women’s Team Pursuit, but from Sarah it’s always clear there’s more to come. This became true when she won the Women’s Omnium in dominant fashion – as always. Next up was Sofia Arreola in the scratch race, where she picked up another great result – after finishing 4th last year in Manchester – taking 5th in amongst a truly world class field. Last, but definitely not least was the turn of Martyn and Recep in the Men’s Omnium. Both comfortably made it through the qualifiers and then they showed the rest of the World how hard they’ve been working by taking 4th and 5th overall. Sofia was involved in a crash in the Women’s Omnium Elimination race which meant she wasn’t able to compete in the rest of the event but after taking 5th in the Scratch race the day before, it’s still a very successful World Cup for all of Andy Spark’s riders. The Olympic points Martyn picked up this round have moved him up to within 1 place of Olympic qualification. After missing 2 meets – 1 intentionally and 1 non intentionally after a crazy DSQ in the Astana round – it’s looking very very good for him!